I'm Back with News

So after a day's respite from blogging, I have faithfully returned. I know my loyal readers were distraught when they discovered I didn't post on Friday, but never fear, I have come back. A good amount of news on the tail end of Thursday and Friday, some stuff that should be noted is:

LA: So the Dodgers officially named Joe Torre there manager and you know what I have to say: good for both of them. As I have said, I hold no bitterness towards Joe. I wish he had stayed but hey, what the hell. I hope he does well unless they are playing the Yankees, and then, well, I'll have to root for my team obviously. He was signed to a three year/$13 million deal, which is a lot of money (compare that to Girardi's three year/$7.8 million deal) to manage a baseball team. But I guess he certainly deserves it. I wish him and the Dodgers well. It's not just Joe Torre that is headed west from the Yankees however. He is to be joined by Don Mattingly on his coaching staff and possibly some others. Talk is former Yankees third base coach Larry Bowa is thinking about it as well, but that doesn't really make a huge difference I would have to say. Funny thing about Torre headed to LA is his reuniting with Scott Proctor, the former Yankee middle reliever who many say, including me for the most part, Torre wore out. Torre does have a tendency to fall in love with one reliever (Proctor, Quantrill, Stanton, Nelson, etc) and then burns them out, which is what happened to Proctor and Quantrill especially down the stretch and in the playoffs. One of the sites I have linked on the left side of the blog is a funny Yankee one called NoMaas. They weren't too fond of Torre and they have some funny stuff on him going to the Dodgers. You should check it out.

NYM: As I mentioned in my last blog, the Mets are making some noise in their talking with their current third baseman David Wright about moving, not to second as I though I heard, but to first. This of course is in order to make room for that Rodriguez guy. I don't know about that, there isn't much else I can say than what I said in my last writing about the Mets. I think adding Rodriguez would be huge obviously (not just for the Mets but any team) but I think moving Wright would be a mistake, since he is already a really good third baseman. Plus, I don't think offense is the problem with the Mets. Not saying that with the addition of A-Rod they wouldn't dominate the National League, which has crappy offenses abound, but they would still need some pitching. And sorry, a Pedro Martinez who only throws like 85 is decent, but not good enough to actually win. Another thing in regards to the Mets and the Yankees is Jorge Posada. The Yankee catcher says he wants to remain in NY since he added on to his Manhattan home and it would be a waste to move somewhere else. And that of course only leaves two teams, the Yankees and Mets. The Mets current have a hole at catcher with Paul LoDuca becoming a free agent but reports have suggested the Mets are in fact looking to resign him. That would lead me to believe they would not go after Posada, unless it was to make him a first baseman, which then in turn would mean they would not move David Wright, and THAT means, no A-Rod. So decisions, decisions for the Metropolitans.

NYY: Speaking of Jorge Posada, there has been a lot of talk about Posada having a problem with Joe Girardi and some people have said that playing for a coach who played your position is hard. But, to them i say: Joe Torre was Posada's boy, and wait...yeah, that's right, Joe Torre was a CATCHER. Idiots. That is not the problem, in fact, i don't think there is a problem. Posada recently said, as reported by Peter Abraham on the LoHud Blog (check it out) that he likes Girardi and that Girardi was a mentor and a teacher for him when he was on the team. I would say that's a good sign. Posada obviously wants to stay in NY, as I mentioned above and I think signing with the Yankees would be a good move. They are desperate to keep him, so they are probably going to overpay, and when he starts to break down, he can move to two other positions (1B and DH) in the AL, while there is only one other option in the NL. In the end, I think he'll stay in pinstripes. One player who is definitely remaining in pinstripes is Bobby Abreu. The Yankees exercised their $16 million option on the right fielder and this was definitely a great move by the management. It already appears the Yanks will lose their cleanup hitter (A-Rod) they certainly couldn't afford to lose their three hitter as well. Abreu, though afraid of walls in right field, is solid defensivly but a great offensive player. Last year his numbers were a little down, but that's only cause of his horrific start. From July to September he was one of the Yankees most consistent hitters and I think was near the top of the list in many important offensive categories during that period as well. This was a smart move by the Yanks, they need Abreu and his offense, and if they keep Posada and add a solid third baseman with some legit offensive numbers, they may not score 900 runs like they did this year, but 800 for sure.

A-Rod: It's tough to talk about the Yankees without discussing Douche Bag Prime as I like to call him. Supposedly Rodriguez was looking for the $350 million deal with the Yankees. Is he insane? Is it 10 years or 8, cause either way you are paying, at the end of the deal, a 40-42-year-old shortstop/third baseman between $35 and $40 millino to play baseball. That is ridiculous. He wouldn't even listen to the Yankees' offer, which was, by all accounts was huge. Now he thinks he is going to get that money elsewhere? Yeah, I don't think so. And if he is, the team is going to have to clear some major space on their payroll, and that means they aren't going to be any good. Too bad for A-Rod....oh wait, not really. I really did love/adore/worship him while he was on the Yankees, but now, the way that he just threw the Yankees' aside without even listening was ridiculous. Boras said A-Rod was just a regular free agent like Rivera and Posada...yeah, ok. Well, even if that's true, they both listened to the Yankees offers, he didn't even give them a chance. Ridiculous.

BOS: The Red Sox exercised their options on pitchers Tim Wakefield and Julian Tavarez. Wakefield is a solid started who just seems to get the job done even though he is a circus freak of a pitcher (knuckleballer) and Tavarez is just a solid player to come out of the bullpen and be a spot starter. The Red Sox are loaded right now and they just have to deal with the Mike Lowell thing. Though online petitions and Facebook groups are lobbying pretty hard for him to retire a Red Sock. We'll see if they get greedy and go for A-Rod, which they probably shouldn't do, or stick with Lowell, which they should. I'm not just saying that cause I wouldn't want to see the best player in the game make the team I hate the most almost unbeatable (thinking of a lineup with Ortiz, A-Rod and Manny back-to-back-to-back makes me sick), I'm saying it cause I think it would be a bad move. But they would like to stick it to the Yankees. Of course, if they do sign Mr. Rodriguez they will certainly have the games highest payroll and could Red Sox fans deal with that? Probably not, they don't want to "be the Yankees", even though, to every other team in the game, they already are exactly like the Yankees.

So that's the news for right now. There is some Tori Hunter stuff. I don't know about him. Solid defensively, but overrated offensively, he's really not that good. I don't know where he would fit in, contender wise. Maybe the Braves, who decided not to go after free agent Andruw Jones...? Who knows. Sad story in Tiger Land. Flamethrowing reliever Joel Zumaya, who missed a good amount of this year with a finger problem has another, possibly career-ending setback. While helping move stuff from his father's attic in wildfire-ravaged Southern California, a box fell on his pitching shoulder requiring major surgery. The guy can't get a break. Two years ago it was Guitar Hero that gave him semi-carpal tunnel, then this year it was the finger popping, and then in the offseason he's simply trying to help his dad avoid having all of his possessions torched, and a gd box falls on his pitching shoulder. That sucks. I hope he has a good recovery and can come back and pitch, cause he throws gas. Ok, that's all for right now. Big NFL game tomorrow between Colts and Patriots. I dont' know if you've heard...I hate the Patriots, and I semi-like the Colts, so I'm hoping they come out on top. But seriously, the Patriots look like they're playing high school teams right now. Can I logically pick the Colts? No. Patriots will win, but maybe it won't be a blowout...Maybe.